Spain has laid the ‘first stone’ to play a leading role in the world’s future energy revolution hydrogen renewable. The goal is to become Europe’s first major production, industrial consumption and export center for the expected boom in new green gas. And for this it now initializes this: first market test Knowing the real interest of energy companies in production green hydrogen and the massive industry that will consume it.
EnagalarThe Spanish gas system manager and gas pipeline network operator plans to measure for the first time the supply and demand volume of green hydrogen, which uses electricity from renewable energies for its production, and the needs to transport gas by pipeline. production centers and industrial facilities that consume it.
Energy and industrial groups already have a ‘mega portfolio’ of nearly a hundred renewable hydrogen production projects, and Enagás has designed a network of vast corridors of nearly 3,000 kilometers of tubes to transport the new green gas both within the country and to Europe.
The layout and capacity of these infrastructures were designed with preliminary consumption estimates, but Enagás is now preparing to collect more precise information from companies. Reviewing and adapting the design of transportation corridors, resize the entire infrastructure and even bring forward construction deadlines if necessary (some corridors are so far planned for 2030, others for 2040).
Research the market
This Tuesday, the company presented the features and objectives of its ‘macrotest’ markets to hydrogen producers, industrial consumers, energy marketers, distributors and market intermediaries. The process will open Between September 22 and November 17 A ‘call for interest’ for producers and consumers to submit non-binding offers for using the future tube network and provide detailed information about hydrogen projects on the Spanish market.
Enagás will launch a second non-binding process (known as an “open season”) to collect more detailed information from companies throughout 2024. And a third process (another ‘open season’) will be activated in 2025, with binding offers now being made for future hydro channels, effectively marking the beginning of customer acquisition. A kind of pre-sale with actual contracts for the capacity of tubes that will transport hydrogen from production centers to industrial centers that will consume it.
“We need information to be able to examine whether the infrastructure proposal we have made really responds to the needs of the Spanish market. We need more real data to decide whether we should make changes to the design and dimensions of the corridors,” explained Natalia Latorre, general manager of Enagás Energy Transition.
The company underlines the industry’s current support for the ‘call for interest’ process: More than 110 letters of support Expressing the intention to participate of companies and associations representing 90% of the hydrogen value chain and close to 95% of existing producers and consumers of gray hydrogen (produced with natural gas or other hydrocarbons).
Other European countries such as France, Belgium or the Netherlands have already activated similar ‘call for interest’ processes to check companies’ interest in getting into the green hydrogen business, which has been called the next revolution in the energy sector. Replacing natural gas in economic sectors with a green gas that has no emissions and cannot be electrified, as a way to decarbonise.
tube network
Enagás has been working for years on the design of the so-called Spanish hydrogen backbone, envisaging the construction of major internal transport corridors as well as international connections with France and Portugal (the famous H2Med project) with planned investments of around 7,000 million euros.
Spain has envisaged the construction of two major domestic green hydrogen transport corridors for the domestic network by 2030 and has submitted a request to the European Commission to recognize them as projects of common interest to the EU and therefore receive European funds to finance the project. necessary investments. The ‘call for interest’ that Spain is currently launching focuses specifically on gauging the potential demand for the use of these first domestic brokers.
The internal network includes a wide corridor that will connect Huelva, Puertollano (Ciudad Real), Zamora and Gijón, and another corridor that will connect Gijón, Barcelona and Cartagena. In addition, the Administration is seeking EU funding to build two underground storages for hydrogen in saline cavities in Cantabria and the Basque Country. Enagás estimates that an investment of 4 billion 670 million euros will be required for domestic installations.
Presentation in Berlin
The internal corridor network will be used to transport hydrogen between production and consumption centres, but will also fuel the future major connection with Europe. Spain, France and Portugal agreed to promote the first major hydrogen corridor in the European Union, and later added Germany to the initiative. A pharaonic project called H2Med with planned investments of around 2.5 billion euros.
The original plan agreed between Madrid, Paris and Lisbon was to connect the three countries with a two-section corridor expected to be operational between 2028 and 2030. One section will connect Spain with Portugal (between Celorico da Beira and Zamora) and the other with France (between Barcelona and Marseille. With the addition of Berlin to the project, the tube network will extend from French territory to Germany.)
Enagás, together with its European partners, is preparing a major event to present its plans for the hydrogen corridor, which will be held on October 18 at the Spanish Embassy in Berlin. Company CEO Arturo Gonzalo Aizpiri. The aim is to present Spain as a key player in the future hydrogen revolution and the benefits of H2Med to the Government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz and major German industry.
Gonzalo said, “It is a great opportunity for Spain to be the supplier of the needs of Europe’s large industrial regions, after meeting the domestic demand of our country.” Enagás’ forecasts envisage Spain becoming a major supplier of hydrogen worldwide. Europe, especially Germany’s industrial regions, has an export potential of up to 2.5 million tons per year.